Ten variations of ‘omnishambles’

Oxford Dictionaries

By Alice Northover

Part of the strength of new words is their flexibility — that they can grow, change, and adapt. This elasticity helps cement their place in our language, rather than a brief life in slang. So to present omnishambles’s impact more fully, I’ve rounded up five variations upon it and proposed five additions of my own.

Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker, the character who originated the word omnishambles, in "The Thick of It." (c) BBC

Romneyshambles: The disastrous visit of then presidential candidate Mitt Romney to the United Kingdom in July 2012. Citation: The Atlantic.

Energyshambles: A characterization of the UK government’s energy policy, following several u-turns and contradictory announcements. Citation: The New Statesman.

Euroshambles: A characterization of the Eurozone crisis (actually in use since at least 2000). Citation: The Economist.

Olympishambles: A scandal surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games security contractor G4S as they lacked enough staff for the event, existing staff lacked qualifications and sufficient background checks, and they exploited unpaid workers at the Queen’s Jubilee with the promise of possible Olympic employment. Citation: BBC.

Ennuishambles: A condition during severe bouts of ennui when everything in life seems to have gone wrong as a consequence of affected detachment. Commonly found in people who studied French at university. (ennui + omnishambles)

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Recent Comments

jill cook13th November 2012

How about ‘lexishambles’? You can take a good idea too far making it meaningless. ‘meanishambles’ – I don’t think so…..

Mark Fuller13th November 2012

Ohh, you missed out my favourite; Omnivoreshambles, relating to the Badger Cull fiasco. Seen on Facebook a fortnight back, reported on the BBC website today as part of their piece on the Word Of The Year….